The Estevan Motor Speedway held one of its biggest weekends of the year over the past couple of days, with the Riley Raynard Dirt Wars Championship being held here in the southeast. The annual doubleheader sees races in all categories held across Saturday and Sunday, unlike the usual one-day event for the Speedway.
Brad Pierson, the President of the Speedway, says the days are an opportunity to focus on a certain class of drivers.
"That's focused on our hobby stock drivers, along with our Kids Day too, which was Sunday, and so both those days were huge for us. Two big days of racing, and the Kids Day is just a great deal for the Speedway in general."
While there was a bit of interruption thanks to some storms that came through, Pierson says they were able to hold all of their races in decent conditions.
"On Saturday, we had to cut the modified race short by about 10 laps, but that was an official race, and so that one was done. The hobby stocks didn't get to run their feature race on Saturday, so Sunday, we got started on time, and we got that hobby stock feature run with, then a whole other program ran through.
"Even with the threat on Sunday night, which looked, in my opinion, it looked like it was going to be way worse, we just hustled our way through it, and from the start to the end, and we got everything done. So for us to pull off six features in our heat races and get it done in under three hours is, is a testament that we're running a quick program."
The Championship was won for the second year in a row by Diesel Raynard, the brother of Riley Raynard, for whom the championship is named.
The Dirt Wars Championship is around the halfway point of the season, with some races still to go in August and September.
Getting through the year has gone relatively smoothly, says Pierson.
"I think the first half of the season's been well, we've only lost one to weather, but you know, we've had some struggles this month with weather, but we've got all of our shows in, and we're happy with that."
There are still plenty of big races coming for the Speedway as Pierson talks about the upcoming races.
"On August 9th, we're running our full program, so that includes slingshot, hobby stocks, sport mod, stock car, and A-mod, along with the wingless sprints. It's still a regular-priced event, but these wingless sprints are a racing syndicate out of the North Dakota area, and they're very interesting, so that'll be a great night there; we're looking forward to that."
"Even though it's a few weeks away, it will hit us quick, and then not long after that, we'll be at the championship night, the season will be wrapping up, it just goes really quickly."
You can find the Estevan Motor Speedway's schedule by heading to their Facebook page.